The spirit of the work and the materials
The spirit of the work
Ralph Anderson is a wildlife biologist and wildcrafter who carves and embellishes wild and found organic objects. He also gathers and works with native mountain mahogany.
He is drawn to the shapes, function, and form of wild and found objects... bones, hooves, nuts, mountain mahogany, and other natural objects. He is also intrigued with the spirit in the pieces, knowledge of the creatures and species involved, and fascinated with traditions and other perspectives, which he brings together in transforming organic objects into functional and decorative objects, from mountain mahogany rings and gem studded rattles to gourds, freeform spoons, and reproductions of feathers, claws and canines from wolves, bears, coyotes and other creatures.
Ralph also gathers, works with, and makes available a limited amount of native mountain mahogany -- a gemwood substance with unique workability and qualities. He's also interested in non-wood objects. Nuts – acorns, English, black, or Carpathian walnuts – and even fruit pits are clearly a fascination. “How many people know the differences among them – ecologically, physiologically, ‘spiritologically’? he muses.
Such objects offer both sustenance and opportunities for ornamentation. Acorns, for instance, have probably been eaten by more people over time... than corn or grains, yet the use of them is nearly a lost tradition. Ralph sometimes prepares a rich, delicious light-flavored flour from the acorns he harvests for wildcrafting.
What becomes who?
Beaded acorns (Quercus garryana): Acorns from the Columbia Gorge, Oregon. Stabilized by microwave and drying. Beading is peyote stitched, size 11 seed beads. They take Approximately 3-4 hours each.
Mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius): This is a native small tree or shrub. It is the hardest of North American hardwoods. It is rich in oil and often highly sought after by big game as highly nutritious browse. Mountain mahogany is sometimes called mountain laurel, and is a genus of 5 or 6 species, several of which are locally or regionally threatened. The oldest mountain mahogany recorded was alive and healthy in Utah at over 1200 years old. It is very slow growing and rarely achieves diameters at its base of over 14 to 16 inches. It grows on very dry sites where it is protected from fires, to which it is very susceptible.
Rings, Hand carved mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) rings are sizes 6 to 11. Mountain mahogany is North America's hardest hardwood. It is often referred to as gemwood. Insets are hand-carved tagua nut (vegetable ivory).
Beads, figures, leaves: When fully cured mountain mahogany will not float (specific gravity >1). It is oil-rich and can be sanded to 1200 grit or higher. Working characteristics of mountain mahogany are that of very hard and somewhat brittle, oil rich wood. It makes fine instruments if not cured with wax-based preservatives. It is very slow drying and highly subject to checking.
More rings: Hand carved Rocky Mountain wapiti (Cervus elaphus) (elk) rings sizes 6 to 11. Collected in Wallowa County, Oregon from shed antlers.
Hair sticks, shuttle, warp picker, paper creasers: Lower leg bones are the thickest walled and densest hence are most suitable for the articles carved from them. When such bones are not allowed to weather so much that all the natural oils are dried out of them, they retain a significant degree of transluscence. Care consists of periodically re-oiling them. The finest of suitable oils are animal in origin, and often as close as the wearers', users' faces!
Below, Ralph hides in the shadows, playing with some wildcraft bits!
